PHILADELPHIA — While many moms will spend this Mother’s Day morning sleeping in or enjoying a breakfast they didn’t have to make, thousands of mothers and daughters, donning every shade of pink, will start their day sweating for a cause.

One group of about 70 women from Montgomery and Chester counties will be among the thousands of others who make their way into Philadelphia for the 2012 Komen Race for the Cure, a 5K that starts and ends near the Philadelphia Art Museum steps.

But this group, Zumba Fitness with Jana, isn’t just going to be walking and jogging in the 5K. They’ll be on stage doing Zumba, a Latin-inspired workout that incorporates dancing into the fitness routine, to warm up the crowd of thousands.

Jana Kent-Dewald, the founder and instructor of Zumba Fitness with Jana, said she and her Zumba students were invited by the Susan G. Komen foundation to participate in the event after they raised an amazing amount of money in a short amount of time.

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“What started off just really as something fun, has turned into a mission,” Kent-Dewald said. “Many of us have been affected by breast cancer” and want to fight back.

That determination to fight against a disease that has taken so much from so many, was apparent when Kent-Dewald held a series of Zumba classes in October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The donations came flooding in, and thousands of dollars were raised. Kent-Dewald said she sent the money off to the Philadelphia affiliate of Susan G. Komen, which serves 11 counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania, including Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties, as well as counties in New Jersey and Delaware. She enclosed a letter explaining where the money came from.

“And the CEO of Komen called me personally within days of receiving the letter,” Kent-Dewald said. “They were like ‘Who are you guys?’”

Impressed by the donations and the impact breast cancer had on the local women, the Komen organization invited Kent-Dewald and her students to perform Zumba before the crowd this morning to warm them up.

Kent-Dewald said she and her students were ecstatic when they got the news a few weeks ago, and obviously accepted the invitation. They also kicked their fund-raising into high gear.

“We thought, how much money can we raise,” she said. “At first, we said, let’s try to raise $2,500. You know, times are tough. But then, Rebecca (Nemic, a student who lives in Montgomery County) said ‘Let me take on this challenge,’ and she started a team page” and got the word out the team was trying to raise money.

As of 8 a.m. Thursday, the team had raised $12,337 in nine weeks. By Saturday morning, that total had grown by nearly $500, to $12,832, enough to qualify the team to have their own tent at the event this morning.

“When we found out we were one of three groups that qualified for our own tent, we were beating corporations,” Kent-Dewald said in astonishment of what her team had accomplished.

But even above the fundraising, she said the impact the involvement with Komen and fighting back against such a horrible disease has had on her students is invaluable.

“It’s amazing what this has done to the people who come and take my class,” she said. “It’s a chance for people to mourn the losses they have had as well as celebrate those who have survived.”

Personally, Kent-Dewald, of Chester Springs, has lost family members to the disease.

“My mother had four sisters and one of her sisters was diagnosed with breast cancer over 30 years ago,” she said. “There was no treatment, they removed the breast. It was the most horrifying news for a women to receive. Back then, people didn’t talk about people who had cancer.

“My aunt’s daughter was diagnosed with cancer in her 30s, and she passed away in 2010,” Kent-Dewald continued. “When she passed away, I put together a Zumba fundraiser.”

She raised thousand of dollars and realized that the feeling of helplessness could be put at bay.

That same feeling is what inspires the people who take her class and join in on the fight.

When the women started to take Kent-Dewald’s class, they were strangers.

“We didn’t really know each others’ names. You would hear about somebody’s granddaughter, who’s getting married … but it’s like this unspoken support, you don’t have to know each other that well when someone is hurting or has a sense of loss,” she said. “It’s this incredible sense of community without it having to be spoken.”

Rebecca Nemic, the team captain of Zumba Fitness with Jana, echoed those sentiments.

“I look around at all the friends I’ve made at Zumba and how breast cancer (and fighting back) has affected them,” she said. “When girls get together, we motivate each other because, I think, we can talk at the same level; balancing work, family and then you throw and illness into all of that.”

Nemic also acknowledged a handful of men who come to Zumba and will be in Philadelphia this morning joining all the ladies in pink.

“Then men, mostly they are there because they want to fight back because they’ve been affected personally,” she said. Men have lost their mothers, their wives, they’ve watched their children lose their mom. They are a part of the fight, too.”

Nemic said members of her family, including an aunt who just had a mastectomy, have been directly affected by breast cancer.

“You see it flow through friends and family and how it affects so many people,” she said in a somber whisper.

Then, optimism in her voice, she said “We started out as a team of six, and it just shows that we can have the same affect by raising money.” The hope spreads, too, and “our fund-raising just took off.”

Nemic, Kent-Dewald and the rest of their team are inspired to do more, and while they’re out this morning fighting like a bunch of girls determined to beat breast cancer, they’re already looking ahead at what they can do next.

If you want to learn more about becoming a student of Zumba Fitness with Jana, or if you want to learn more about how to help the team raise money for Susan G. Komen, visit the Zumba Fitness with Jana page on Facebook. You may also visit the Zumba Fitness with Jana team page on the Race for The Cure website and donate to the team or to an individual through June 1. Jana Kent-Dewald, of Chester Springs, is a certified Zumba instructor. She is currently teaching Zumba at the Kimberton Arts Building in Kimberton on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.